(Modesto, Calif., December 21) – Environmentally friendly production practices
and maximizing production can go hand-in-hand says a Kern Country almond grower
who has been honored by the state of California for his innovative integrated
pest management (IPM) techniques.

Thomas Vetsch, owner of Bakersfield-based Vetsch Farms, decided more than seven
years ago to convert 160 acres of his conventionally farmed almond orchard to
practices that reduce reliance on broad-spectrum insecticides and routine
fungicides.

With
financial support from the Almond Board of California’s Pest Management Alliance
project and the scientific expertise of the University of California Cooperative
Extension, Vetsch has virtually eliminated the use of synthetic pesticides to
manage key pests in the orchard, reducing overall inputs while increasing yields
throughout the orchard. The practices he has developed on his Kern County
orchard have been so successful he has converted all four ranches at Vetsch
Farms of California to sustainable, IPM-based farming.

His accomplishments caught the attention of the California Department of
Pesticide Regulation, which recently honored Vetsch with one of its nine annual
IPM Innovator Awards. Vetsch was lauded for using predatory mites, spraying
reduced-risk pesticides, and seasonal monitoring for pests and beneficial
insects.

Vetsch is an example of an increasing number of almond growers who are striving
to improve reduced risk farming practices while maintaining a productive and
healthy environment for future generations, says Chris Heintz, director of
Production Research and the Environment for the Almond Board of California.
“Three decades of research funded by the Almond Board of California have given
almond growers the tools to become better stewards of the land,” explains
Heintz. “By supporting this research, and through grower field days and
published educational materials, the Almond Board is continually working to
develop environmentally sensitive farming techniques and transfer them into
commercial orchards.”

The Almond Board was an early pioneer of IPM research and education starting in
1997. That year, the Board received a grant from the state Department of
Pesticide Regulation to initiate the almond Pest Management Alliance (PMA)
project at Vetsch Farms and commercial sites in Butte County and Stanislaus
counties.

When funding for the five-year project expired three years ago, the Almond Board
continued to fund the research that helped develop reduced risk strategies, such
as scouting, monitoring, beneficial insects and cultural controls.

Those reduced-risk farming practices today make the California almond industry a
leader in environmentally sustainable farming.

“The Almond Board was one of the early participants in the first year of the PMA
project,” says DPR Environmental Scientist Bob Elliott, past coordinator of the
PMA project. “They truly made a commitment to take a comprehensive look at
evaluating and identifying alternatives that had been researched and were ready
to be implemented or to continue research on those practices where more work was
needed.”

Elliot says the Almond Board has become a model for the public-private
partnership between DPR, industry and participating growers in Integrated Pest
Management research and education, enabling growers to adopt reduced risk
farming practices.

The Almond Board leadership has since been recognized by two consecutive awards
from the EPA’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program and an IPM Innovator
award from DPR.

Vetsch says that when he initiated the IPM demonstration block he was at a
crossroads in his almond growing operation and looking for ways to farm that
would maintain profits while reducing the environmental impact of his farming
practices.

Vetsch collaborated with UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor Mario Viveros who
helped him convert a section of his almond orchard into a PMA-sponsored IPM
demonstration block. In that block, IPM strategies have been developed and
compared over the last six years with conventional almond production strategies.

ORCHARD
SANITATION and a well-timed oil spray are key practices at the Vetsch Farms in
Bakersfield being inspected by Vetsch, right and general manager Ken Ballou.
(Photo by Marni Katz)

With the expertise of Viveros and General Manager Ken Ballou, Vetsch has
replaced traditional organophosphate dormant sprays with good orchard sanitation
and a well-timed oil spray. His fertilizers are applied according to the needs
of individual blocks and varieties. Ballou has reduced fungicide applications by
converting to microsprinklers and increasing light and air movement in the
orchard through hedging and thinning trees.

Vetsch’s IPM demonstration site provided UC researchers with information on San
Jose scale damage potential and sampling methods that have led to widely adopted
practices for managing scale with reduced-risk materials and economic
thresholds.

Vetsch continues to focus on improving irrigation management and building soil
health to perpetuate a sustainable environment for his orchard. He believes
these practices will ultimately pay off, not only for future generations but
also for the long-term productivity of his orchard. He also believes it pays off
in the market place as consumers are increasingly focused on how their food is
produced.

Once his IPM program took off, Vetsch downsized in acreage so that he and Ballou
could focus more resources on monitoring, scouting and cultural practices.
Today, Vetsch Farms spends about $40 an acre on monitoring and scouting, less
than the cost of a single insecticide spray, and that information gathering has
become the cornerstone of all its production practices.

More foot time in the orchard to scout and monitor for insect pests has created
secondary benefits by allowing Ballou to quickly recognize symptoms, such as
water or fertilizer deficiencies, before they have a chance to significantly
impact yield.

“We stay connected to the trees in the orchard and are able to detect problems
right away,” he says.

As a result, of this intensive management, yields at Vetsch Farms have jumped
from an average of 1,800 pounds per acre to about 2,400 pounds per acre and
returns are further improved through less costly inputs. Production costs per
acre have dropped by about 25 percent as yields have increased about 20 percent.

“We focus more time, energy and resources into less acreage to maximize the
output,” Ballou says. “And our production has gradually been going up the last
five years.”

“We really found out that less is more,” Vetsch notes.

Innovation has been key for another Central Valley almond grower who is working
hard to meet air quality challenges in the San Joaquin Valley. Fred Olmstead,
Fresno County, has been steadily adopting more sustainable farming practices
pioneered in part through Almond Board of California-supported research.

The General Manager of Air-Way Farms says in recent years the operation has been
addressing such environmentally sensitive issues as air quality and water
quality by gradually shifting the way it farms.

Air-Way Farms has converted about one-fourth of its 1,300 acres of almonds to an
experimental harvesting operation aimed at addressing air quality issues,
refitting every aspect of the operation from its pickup machines and sweeps to
its harvesters and prunings management, in an effort to reduce the air pollution
emitted from the orchard.

Olmstead estimates recent modifications to his sweep, pickup machines and
harvester on that experimental acreage have reduced the amount of dirt taken in
to the huller during harvest by 25 to 30 percent. Prunings from the almond
orchard are chipped and hauled to a nearby field where the chips are composted
into fertilizer for Air-Way’s row crops.

Such alternatives focused on air quality have been the subject of environmental
research and outreach by the Almond Board for more than a decade.

Growers like Olmstead and Vetsch, who are impassioned about focusing on
environmental stewardship in California almond farming operations, believe they
are becoming the norm in the California almond industry. And the Almond Board
continues to support those and other efforts through its industry sponsored
research and Environmental Stewardship campaign.

“We certainly see more grower interest in these alternatives,” DPR’s Elliott
says. “And the board has been committed through its Environmental Committee to
continue promoting the exchange of information on these types of programs and
alternatives.”

# # #

The Almond Board of California administers a grower-enacted Federal Marketing
Order under the supervision of the United States Department of Agriculture.
Established in 1950, the Board’s charge is to promote the best quality almonds,
California’s largest tree nut crop. For more information on the Almond Board of
California or almonds, visit
www.AlmondBoard.com.